Running the fire and rescue agency in Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction is an enormous job. Montgomery County yields an average of 300 emergency medical calls a day plus another dozen for fires. The agency employs about 1,250 career firefighters and medics, has a large volunteer force and runs dozens of stations across 500 square miles of land. Now, with the retirement this year of Chief Scott Goldstein, who’d served since 2015, County Executive Marc Elrich has nominated another agency veteran to take his place: Division Chief Charles Bailey.

Despite the fog in downtown Frederick on Sunday morning, dozens of people walked along Carroll Creek Park to browse at the first Frederick Holiday Market. Local vendors and businesses from in and out of Frederick County sold a vast range of goods, including handmade products, art, food for people and for pets, jewelry and wreaths. More than 90 were expected. They drew attendees in holiday-themed attire. Children also could get free photos with Santa Claus toward one end of the park.

After a Stoneleigh Elementary School student was hit by a vehicle this week, residents renewed calls for speed bumps and cameras to be added to Regester Avenue to force drivers to slow down. Officers responded to the intersection of Regester and Kenleigh Avenues where they found a 10-year-old boy who had been hit while crossing the street. A preliminary investigation determined that a 2014 Ford Fusion struck the boy while traveling westbound and was not speeding at the time of the crash, Baltimore County Police said Friday.

 

Seven months after former Baltimore Health Commissioner Letitia Dzirasa became a deputy mayor for the city, Mayor Brandon Scott announced plans to nominate Dr. Ihuoma Emenuga for the vacant position. Emenuga, who previously served as a medical director for the Baltimore City Health Department’s Youth Wellness and Community Health Division, would start the job Jan. 22, assuming the Board of Estimates approves her contract.

Helping Maryland’s counties afford their share of the Blueprint, the landmark plan to revamp the state’s public schools and early childhood programs, will be the No. 1 education issue before the General Assembly in 2024, Senate Majority Leader Nancy J. King said. The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, passed by the legislature in 2021, increases education funding by $3.8 billion annually for 10 years, with the cost borne by the state, the 23 counties and Baltimore City.

Gov. Wes Moore announced an executive order to “broaden” the state’s efforts to combat the the drug overdose crisis through reorganizing and expanding a state entity previously known as the Opioid Operational Command Center. Moore (D) said the order will “help broaden state and government’s approach to tackling the overdose crisis,” to reflect the ever-changing nature of the opioid crisis and overdoses in general.

Frederick County is helping 28 households work with a state commission to investigate claims that those using housing vouchers were charged more than other tenants in the same complex. The county’s Human Relations Department is working with the 28 households to file complaints with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, the county said in a press release Friday. The county Human Relations Department did an initial investigation in the case, but the state’s process requires that individual tenants file complaints with the state commission, county spokeswoman Vivian Laxton said in an interview Friday.

 

The Baltimore Peninsula development team, led by MAG Partners and MacFarlane Partners, in partnership with Sagamore Ventures and the Urban Investment Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, announced 15 new leases consisting of more than 65,000 square feet of retail and office space. MaryAnne Gilmartin, founder and CEO of MAG Partners, said the new agreements have pushed Baltimore Peninsula’s retail space past 30% of its leasing capacity.

Budget cuts recently announced by state officials totaling $3.3 billion in Maryland’s 2024-2029 Consolidated Transportation Program may not have as devastating an impact on local projects as first thought, according to local officials. One of the largest cuts felt locally is $26 million in the effort to upgrade U.S. Route 219 from Old Salisbury Road to the Pennsylvania line in Garrett County.

In the new landscape of abortion discourse following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) and other Democrats are calling on top social media sites to combat potentially harmful misinformation related to abortion access and procedures. On Dec. 7, Raskin and 12 other Democratic members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability sent letters addressed to Elon Musk, the chairman and chief technology officer of the social media site formerly known as Twitter, now called X, and Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, calling on them to combat the spread of misinformation on abortion.